Gennadiy Golovkin, 40, is no longer one of the best.
That was abundantly clear on Saturday in Las Vegas, where he looked his age in a unanimous-decision loss to super middleweight champion Canelo Alvarez in their third fight.
He did next to nothing for two thirds of the fight but showed some signs of life down the stretch, which might’ve saved him from embarrassment.
However, overall, the Triple-G we saw at T-Mobile Arena had no resemblance to the beast who ran roughshod over a long list of solid middleweight opponents for a decade-plus. That fighter is gone.
Thus, Golovkin (unlucky No. 13 in the most recent rankings) drops off of Boxing Junkie’s pound-for-pound list.
That allows Jermall Charlo and Shakur Stevenson to move up one notch each from Nos. 14 and 15, respectively. And Roman Gonzalez ascends from Honorable Mention to No. 15.
Golovkin is replaced on the list by veteran Kazuto Ioka, who re-enters as an Honorable Mention. The Japanese junior bantamweight titleholder last fought in July, when he easily outpointed Donnie Nietes to avenge an earlier split-decision loss.
Meanwhile, Alvarez (No. 7) got back into the win column after his upset loss to Dmitry Bivol in May. However, a victory over this version of Golovkin wasn’t enough for him to climb the list. He stays put.
Stevenson, who is on the rise, is scheduled to defend his 130-pound titles against Robson Conceicao on Friday in Newark, New Jersey.
Here is what the list looks like at the moment:
BOXING JUNKIE
POUND-FOR-POUND
- Terence Crawford – Reportedly has reached an agreement to meet Errol Spence Jr. for the undisputed welterweight championship on Nov. 19 in Las Vegas but no official announcement has been made.
- Naoya Inoue – Reportedly has reached an agreement to meet Paul Butler for the undisputed bantamweight championship on Dec. 13 in Japan but no official announcement has been made.
- Oleksandr Usyk – No fight scheduled.
- Errol Spence Jr. – Reportedly has reached an agreement to meet Terence Crawford for the undisputed welterweight championship on Nov. 19 in Las Vegas but no official announcement has been made.
- Tyson Fury – Reportedly has reached an agreement to defend his WBC heavyweight title against Anthony Joshua on Dec. 3 but no official announcement has been made.
- Dmitry Bivol – Scheduled to defend his WBA light heavyweight title against Gilberto Ramirez on Nov. 5 in the United Arab Emirates.
- Canelo Alvarez– No fight scheduled.
- Vasiliy Lomachenko – Reportedly has reached an agreement to meet Jamaine Ortiz on Oct. 29 in New York but no official announcement has been made.
- Juan Francisco Estrada – Scheduled to face Roman Gonzalez on Dec. 3. Estrada is the WBC’s junior bantamweight “franchise champion”.
- Jermell Charlo – Reportedly has reached an agreement to defend his undisputed junior middleweight championship against Tim Tszyu on Jan. 28 but no official announcement has been made.
- Gervonta Davis – No fight scheduled.
- Artur Beterbiev – Had been scheduled to defend his unified titles against Anthony Yarde on Oct. 29. However, the fight was postponed after Beterbiev was injured. No new date has been announced.
- Jermall Charlo – No fights scheduled.
- Shakur Stevenson – Scheduled to defend his unified junior lightweight titles against Robson Conceicao on Sept. 23 in Newark, N.J.
- Roman Gonzalez – Scheduled to face WBC junior bantamweight “franchise champion” Juan Francisco Estrada on Dec. 3.
Honorable mention (alphabetical order): David Benavidez (no fight scheduled); Stephen Fulton Jr. (no fight scheduled); Devin Haney (scheduled to defend his undisputed lightweight championship in a rematch with George Kambosos Jr. on Oct. 16 in Australia); Kazuto Ioka (no fight scheduled); Josh Taylor (reportedly in talks to defend his WBO junior welterweight title in a rematch with Jack Catterall in January but no deal is in place).
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